Texier/winemaking query

Your guesses are damn good, Joe.
There's also a heat transfer issue... the dry cap is less efficient in transferring heat, and so you can get localized hot spots where the temps really climb (in excess of 40 deg-C). These extremely high temps stress the microbial population (even yeasts don't like gettin up that high), and VA can result.
Bathing the cap in liquid helps disseminate the heat over the whole of the tank, avoiding such hot spots.

Mike and Anne D are long-time proponents of the process, by the way, and could fill you in on all the details.
 
Merry Christmas, Bruce, it's good to hear from another expert.

The notion that a "blanket" of drying grape skins might insulate the fermentation makes a lot of sense, as does the notion that a dry spot might get extremely funky and contaminate the whole. Sinking those skins makes lots of sense.

I had a great time a couple of nights ago with M&A on Mike's birthday. Will inquire.
 
Mariano Garca, one of Spain's best winemakers, is a big proponent of 'truncated cone' fermenting vats, whose walls are much more markedly angled than, say, the classic wooden fermenting vat of Burgundy, because with the narrower upper part of the vat the cap remains permanently submerged. It's a good solution for larger vats, it seems. We prefer the simple small (50 hl), open top and rather shallow vats, where the cap is never too thick and therefore is easy to manage, break up and submerge with a simple 'pige'. Oh! And indeed a dry cap is a VA factory.
 
originally posted by SteveTimko:
originally posted by SFJoe:

OK, so good ol' Xinha is totally foiled here, and the tags it puts in don't do squat. Is this new? I hate to compound my winemaking query with a tech query, but I'd welcome insight on either.

It looks like they've ditched HTML and gone to bulletin board code, which is better protection against pesky Albanians.

It doesn't look like that to me.

Test
Test

Nope, still HTML.
 
Strong doesn't work. But B does. Is this some kind of retro HTML code?
2004 Domaine Joseph Roty Marsannay Ros - France, Burgundy, Cte de Nuits, Marsannay (12/7/2008)
Still delicate. Not much on the nose. Maybe some herbs. The fruit flavors are understated. Bright red Jolly Rancher fruit flavors, but not intense. I got a llittle bit of tea flavor I didn't get on an earlier bottle. Balanced. Still a nice finish. This also seemed a little bit overwhelmed by the food at times. Atherton Wine imports. (88 pts.)
2004 Domaine Joseph Roty Marsannay Ros - France, Burgundy, Cte de Nuits, Marsannay (5/11/2008)
Interesting wine. Darker than the Gavoty rose but this was lighter bodied and more delicate. No strong fruit flavors like most rose. Some soft, understated strawberry flavors but also rose petals. This is so delicate it almost seemed overpowered by the food at times. Best finish of any rose I've ever tasted. I had one of these a year ago but it's evolved a lot since then. Other than the delicacy, there's nothing that says pinot noir, though. It will be interesting to try one of these again in a year. (89 pts.)
Posted from CellarTracker
 
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